TAKE a moment to admire—and fear—the ascent of America’s big-five tech firms. Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook have recently become the five most valuable listed companies in the world, in that order. With a total market value of $2.9trn, they are worth more than any five firms in history.

Elevated tech valuations used to be a sign of hysteria. Today’s investors believe they are making an ice-cold judgment that these firms are the dominant oligopolies of the 21st century and will extract a vast, rising, flow of profits. There is one gnawing doubt, however: the formidable five’s cash-rich balance-sheets, which are built as if they expect a crisis, not to dominate the world.

HANOVER, Germany (Reuters) – Volkswagen’s troubled mass-market brand is pushing upmarket again with a new flagship model a year after ceasing the flopped Phaeton luxury saloon in a bid to lift margins and revive its post-dieselgate image.

If you don’t live and breathe IT everyday, you may not realize what a headache it is to support the Mac. Some larger companies have figured out how to make it all work, and tools like those from JAMF certainly help. (You can buy a Mac from Apple these days and have it all configured for your company before you ever remove the shrink-wrap from the box.)

What’s still not working out?

There are still a lot of gotchas for users.

Recently, I’ve heard about end-users who have tried to use a Mac for a few simple, straightforward activities. One was related to Microsoft Teams. Even though Microsoft makes a client app for the Mac (and mobile platforms), there was a configuration problem related to Office 365 in the Chrome browser on a Mac. PC users had no trouble, but when Mac users tried to join a team, they hit a roadblock. It was a simple configuration on the back-end, but it was still frustrating and time-consuming.

A major problem with biometric authentication is that, when it doesn’t work, there are few good options to proceed with the authentication. When the system says that’s not your eyeball, there’s no fallback akin to “Forgot your password?” You have to revert to some less discerning authentication method, such as a PIN.

Some vendors are trying to deal with this by using a simultaneous, multi-biometric method. “Simultaneous” is important because using two methods consecutively would take more time, resulting in end users’ resistance and lower participation rates.

One vendor, Sensory, is making serious headway in figuring out interesting ways to use dual biometrics.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Western Digital said on Thursday it is still seeking arbitration in a dispute with Toshiba Corp over the auction of its prized chip unit, arguing that a transfer of assets by the Japanese firm had not resolved what it calls a serious…

Facebook last week signed agreements with several content firms — among them Vox, Buzzfeed, ATTN and Group Nine Media, according to reports. The deals are widely viewed as part of the company’s strategy to attract millennials to its live-streaming Web content. Facebook will offer multi-tiered programming, according to a report that cited sources familiar with the plans.

Researchers have developed a handheld device for cervical cancer screening that promises to do away with uncomfortable speculums and high-cost colposcopes. If widely adopted, women might even self-screen, transforming screening and cure rates in low-in…

Researchers have identified how the human brain integrates social information when a person decides how much they like something, by studying how user reviews on Amazon influence how people rate the products.

What if running the 26.2 miles of a marathon only felt like running 24.9 miles, or if you could improve your average running pace from 9:14 minutes/mile to 8:49 minutes/mile without weeks of training? Researchers have demonstrated that a tethered soft …

In one of the first crowdfunding studies focusing on social enterprises, researchers have found that how a pitch is voiced and worded is much more important for social entrepreneurs than for their commercial counterparts.

A new study found that people who believe climate change is a problem and see economic, environmental and/or social benefits to using tidal energy are more likely to support such projects. This is the first US study to look broadly at residents’ belief…

Enceladus — a large icy, oceanic moon of Saturn — may have flipped, the possible victim of an out-of-this-world wallop. While combing through data collected by NASA’s Cassini mission during flybys of Enceladus, astronomers have found the first eviden…

A new surgical technique could allow prosthetic limbs to feel much more like natural limbs. Through coordination of the patient’s prosthetic limb, existing nerves, and an artificial muscle graft, amputees would be able to sense where their limbs are in…

TOKYO (Reuters) – Western Digital said on Thursday it is still seeking arbitration in a dispute with Toshiba Corp over the auction of its prized chip unit, arguing that a transfer of assets by the Japanese firm had not resolved what it calls a serious…